1.
First, in real life, Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret were reportedly given special permission to join the crowds outside Buckingham Palace to celebrate the end of World War II on V-E Day. In a 2015 documentary, their cousin Margaret Rhodes recalled, “It was like a wonderful escape for the girls. I don’t think they’d ever been out among millions of people. It was just freedom — to be an ordinary person.”
2.
Elizabeth and Margaret, alongside their cousin and a few others, reportedly did make it to the Ritz to party that night before returning to the palace, where they got to watch their father, King George VI, make a second public appearance on the balcony as they stood amongst the people outside Buckingham Palace.
3.
The photos of Princess Diana and Dodi Fayed kissing were really published on the front page of the Sunday Mirror, and reportedly attracted bids of £500,000, which is roughly around $630,000 at the time. Photographer Mario Brenna reportedly “made about £1.7 million, or $2.1 million, from the photos of the couple.”
4.
The famous diving board photo of Princess Diana, which is depicted in The Crown, was taken a week before her death in Paris. The moment came after the Sunday Mirror published photos of Diana and Dodi kissing. What was reportedly supposed to be a quiet holiday aboard Mohamed Al-Fayed’s private yacht in Portofino turned into a “media circus.”
5.
The Crown shows Princess Diana buying a gift for Prince Harry before her death in 1997, and Prince Harry said that the story has been told so many times he “has no idea if it’s true.” In his memoir Spare, he wrote how his Aunt Sarah, Diana’s sister, apparently brought him the present for his 13th birthday, which was less than a month after Diana’s death.
6.
Trevor Rees-Jones, who was hired as a bodyguard for Dodi by his father, revealed that he and Alexander “Kez” Wingfield, another bodyguard, “suggested” that Diana and Dodi leave out the front of the Ritz Paris in “the regular two vehicles” instead of leaving out of the rear of the hotel in a single vehicle with no security, as Dodi suggested.
7.
After the fatal car crash, police reportedly seized “20 rolls” of film from seven photographers who were at the site of the crash. In the book Diana: Death of a Goddess, apparently while some people rushed to help the victims of the crash, many took photos, with it being reported that one photographer “was beaten at the scene by horrified witnesses” who spotted them taking photos.
8.
Prince Charles reportedly fought for a public funeral for Princess Diana, despite Queen Elizabeth II wishing for a private service. Prince Charles and Prime Minister Tony Blair reportedly insisted that Diana’s coffin be placed at St. James’s Palace and the funeral held at Westminster Abbey.
9.
The Royal Family was criticized for their strict adherence to protocol in the wake of Princess Diana’s death. There was reportedly “angry public response” to the family’s initial refusal to lower the flag to half-mast at Buckingham Palace after Diana died. Eventually, the Queen ruled that all flags at royal residences would be lowered to half-mast.
10.
The note on top of Princess Diana’s coffin from Prince William and Prince Harry that simply read, “Mummy,” is part of a tradition that reportedly started with Prime Minister Winston Churchill writing a note for King George VI after his death. The tradition continued with Queen Elizabeth II penning a note to Churchill that was displayed at his funeral in 1965.
11.
“Willsmania” was the term coined by the press, notably when Prince William arrived in Vancouver, Canada in 1998 during his first big international trip following Princess Diana’s death. At this point, William had not made any public speeches and reportedly the “mystery” surrounding him “amplified the allure” for people, namely young women, around the world.
12.
When Prince William announced that he would attend St Andrews, following a gap year in Chile, the university reportedly saw “the biggest increase in applications for degree courses among UK universities.” Applications for the university were up 44% in 2001 from the year prior.
13.
Prime Minster Tony Blair was notably “heckled, jeered, [and] booed” when he spoke at the Women’s Institute’s national conference in June 2000. What started as “sporadic heckling” soon turned into the whole crowd doing a slow clap. Downing Street reportedly told Blair to be “non-political” in his speech at the conference, which was advice he ignored.
14.
As alluded to in The Crown, Prime Minister Tony Blair and President Bill Clinton were very good friends. So much so that in 2016, Clinton’s presidential library released “532 pages of transcripts” that documented phone calls and/or in-person meetings between the two. The transcripts revealed they spoke about Iraq, Russia, peace in Ireland, Princess Diana’s death, and more. Absent from the transcripts was any mention of Clinton’s affair with Monica Lewinsky, which many were looking for while reading them.
15.
While The Crown shows a scene of a young Kate Middleton meeting Princess Diana and a young Prince William, it never happened in real life. In an interview where she talked about Diana, Kate said, “I never, sadly, got to meet her.” She then went on to say how she thinks Diana would’ve been a “brilliant” grandmother to her and William’s three children.
16.
Prince William and Kate met at St Andrews, with William explaining that they were “friends for over a year first” before they started dating. With Kate adding that they became “very close friends from quite early on.”
17.
While it’s not really clear if Kate actually switched her choice of university so she could attend St Andrews once Prince William decided to go there, Jasper Selwyn, who was a career advisor at Marlborough College where Kate attended, reportedly said that she was all set to attend the University of Edinburgh.
18.
Princess Margaret suffered three strokes between 1998 and 2001, with the first one happening while she was on vacation in Mustique. Her health deteriorated in her later years as she also reportedly dealt with migraines, bronchitis, hepatitis, and laryngitis. She had also given up smoking in 1993, after contracting pneumonia and previously having a small portion of her left lung removed.
19.
In 1999, BBC News reported that Princess Margaret was recovering in Buckingham Palace “after scalding her feet while on holiday.” Similar to what is depicted in The Crown, according to a palace spokesperson, Margaret burnt her feet while “she was getting into a bath.”
20.
In the Operation Paget Inquiry Report, which was the title of the British Metropolitan Police inquiry that investigated the conspiracy theories surrounding Princess Diana’s death, Prince William and Diana’s friends alleged there were no plans for Dodi and Diana to get engaged, with one friend saying, “There was no mention whatsoever of an engagement, nothing to even suggest she might be expecting a proposal, not for a split second.”
21.
The British inquest into Diana’s death found that Dodi did purchase a ring, with the inscription Dis-moi oui (“Tell me yes”), and CCTV footage showed Dodi inside a Paris jewelry store. However, the inquest determined that there was “no indication” that Dodi ever gave Diana the ring prior to their deaths.
22.
Kate Middleton really did walk in a St Andrews charity fashion show in 2002 that Prince William attended. The outfit was designed by Charlotte Todd, who was a fellow student at St Andrews and she reportedly made the piece for only £30.
23.
In his 2023 memoir Spare, Prince Harry detailed the notable Nazi costume incident writing that Prince William and Kate reportedly encouraged him to wear it. He wrote, “I phoned Willy and Kate, asked what they thought. Nazi uniform, they said.” Harry added that they “both howled” when he tried it on, saying, that even at the party, which he recalled had a “cringy” theme of natives and colonials, “no one looked twice at [his] costume.”
24.
Queen Elizabeth II did not attend Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles’ civil wedding ceremony in 2005, but later attended the service of dedication at St. George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle, and she hosted the reception. While some thought the Queen was snubbing the nuptials by not attending, the palace reassured the public that was not the case.
25.
And finally, in the final moments of The Crown, Queen Elizabeth II walks out as “Sleep, Dearie, Sleep” plays, which was ultimately performed by the Queen’s Piper inside Westminster Abbey at the end of her funeral in 2022. The song was played by Pipe Major Paul Burns and his inclusion in the funeral was reportedly a personal request from the Queen.
You can read more facts, specifically about Princess Diana’s death and how The Crown depicted the events in 1997, HERE.
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